The first thing that came to mind for him was pain. A sharp pain on the side of his head, the kind you’d get after having bashed it against something hard. But that was hardly the only thing he could sense at the moment. There was a rough sensation beneath him. From the feel, it was wood of some kind. And then, there was the sound. The sound of water, of the ocean. His head was swimming, feeling an intense headache, though he didn’t know why. All he did know was that, soon after realising all this, he heard a voice.

“Sir? Are you alright?”

It was definitely the voice of a mare, calm and soothing in her tone, and, more importantly, it was just enough to spur him into finally opening his eyes. It was slow at first, but in the end, they were finally open. Sure enough, he saw water around him. Unfortunately, as he’d suspected, that water was indeed the ocean, stretching vast distances all around him. The wood he felt? A raft of some kind. No. A piece of driftwood, gently floating on the surface. Raising a hoof, the stallion nursed the spot on his head, and, again like he suspected, there was a nasty bump there. Definitely going to cause some aches, that one.

“Sir?”

At last, he turned, to look upon the one speaking to him. And when he did, he stopped dead in his tracks. For there, laying beside him on the driftwood, was one of the most beautiful mares he had ever seen. A blue earth pony, with long light-blue hair and a starfish cutie mark. She looked to him with great concern, her hoof gently placed upon his chest.

“Are…are you alright?”

Her voice had a genuine feel of worry to it, and it was that which shook the stallion out from his trance-like state, causing him to shake his head a little before letting out a long sigh.

“Er…yeah. A few bruises I think…but nothing major.”

The mare breathed a sigh of relief, looking to him with a sweet smile upon her face.

“That’s good. I thought I’d lost you for a moment.”

The stallion nodded, and before long, turned his attention to the waters around them.

“Where…where are we?”

The mare tilted her head.

“You don’t remember? We were on that ship and…and we collided with those rocks beneath the surface.”

The stallion’s eyes widened at that, and his head snapped around. Just as she’d said, there it was, their ship, splintered, shattered, and sinking fast. He couldn’t see any other ponies besides themselves, and soon he wouldn’t be able to see anything, for the sun was setting fast, bathing the waters in a warm orange glow. To say that the stallion was unhappy about all this would have been an understatement, as he let out a grunt of annoyance at it all. As for the mare, she just kept on smiling at him.

“Is…is there anything I can do, Sir?”

The stallion shook his head, letting out a sigh as he looked to her.

“Unless you’ve got a flare or something, then no. And for the record, it’s Jay.”

The mare’s smile widened at that.

“That’s good to know. Wouldn’t want to go on not knowing who to thank.”

At that, Jay turned to her with a raised eyebrow, showing clear confusion.

“Thank? Thank for what?”

Gaining an appreciative look, the mare raised a hoof and gently placed it upon his shoulder.

“Why…for saving me of course.”

Jay looked taken aback at that.

“I…I saved you?”

The mare nodded.

“Of course! When the ship first started to go down, you saw me go overboard and you rushed to keep me from going under. Don’t you remember?”

Jay looked away from her and considered those words. He definitely remembered her face from the ship, and he remembered being near her from when all this mayhem started. But rescuing her? That, he couldn’t recall. Then the pain in the side of his head came back with a vengeance, causing him to wince somewhat as he placed his hoof upon the sore spot.

“No…I don’t remember.”

The mare’s ears drooped a little at that, as she looked to him with more than a little concern.

“Well…you did take a nasty bump to the head. Perhaps…perhaps that affected your memory?”

As the pain continued, Jay let her words sink in, and he nodded a little.

“Yeah…that must be it.”

He turned towards her and opened his mouth, ready to continue speaking, only to stop when he heard a loud splash from somewhere near them. His head turned in the sound’s direction, and the surface of the water did indeed seem to have been disturbed by something. But, as he looked to it, he failed to notice that the mare took on a brief look of annoyance as she too glanced at the waters. However, she put on that same smile as before as Jay looked back to her.

“Did…did you see anything?”

But the mare merely shrugged her shoulders.

“Probably just a fish.”

Looking back, the stallion frowned a little.

“Yeah…fish.”

However, he was soon distracted from this as he suddenly felt a warmth come into contact with him, causing him to turn and see, to his shock, that the mare was starting to snuggle up to him.

“Wha…what are you doing?!”

Looking to him, the mare giggled a little.

“Well…it is getting a little cold. We should probably stick together for warmth. Besides…”

In an instant, her eyes took on a half-lidded and amorous look.

“…I believe a “thank you” is in order for your rescue.”

Despite this unusual turn of events, Jay managed to get his words out, albeit in a somewhat fumbled way.

“I…I…I…I…I appreciate this…gesture, Miss. But I hardly think this is the time or place for that sort of thing. I mean…shouldn’t we focus more on being rescued?”

The mare shook her head at that.

“There’s nothing we can do at this point. But, there probably will be a rescue attempt to find the ship, and when it arrives, then we can get to safety.”

Jay nodded at that, only to be dumbfounded once more as the mare placed a hoof upon his chest, gently pushing him into a lying-down position.

“Until then…we have plenty of time to, shall we say…get to know one another?”

One look at her face, and especially her eyes, told Jay everything he needed to about what she planned here, and once more, this caused him to fumble his words.

“I…er…well…don’t think me uninterested, Miss. It’s just…I don’t even know your name.”

Giggling slightly, the mare crept closer, bringing her face to just within an inch of Jay’s, wherein she brought her voice down to a whisper, all while bearing the most seductive look he could remember seeing.

“Since you asked so nicely…it’s Myxine.”